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Giuseppe Pisanelli, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Research InterestsYellow fever virus (YFV) is the etiologic agent of yellow fever. There are no antivirals available to treat yellow fever, and attempts to develop YFV-specific antivirals or to develop alternative vaccines have been hampered by the lack of an immunocompetent mouse model of yellow fever. It has been reported that both the wild-type (Asibi) strain and the 17D strain of yellow fever infect mice with defects in type I IFN (IFN-I) signaling. This suggests that the IFN-I response serves as the major barrier to mouse infection. We have recently shown that YFV antagonizes IFN-I signaling in human and non-human primate cells and that the NS5 proteins of both YFV-Asibi and YFV-17D bind to and sequester human STAT2 after interferon signaling. My research project’s aim is to identify the host restriction factors responsible for the inability of the YF-NS5 protein to bind to murine STAT2 and inhibit murine IFN-I signaling. This will be potentially useful for the development of a Yellow Fever mouse model.